


The Long Bright Dark

by zzzsleeptalker



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, M/M, Murder, Police Procedural
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-04
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-07-29 10:44:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7681282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zzzsleeptalker/pseuds/zzzsleeptalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time he sees Kyungsoo, he mistakes him for a living person. </p><p>(Trainee ghost-hunter Chanyeol gets partnered with the ghost of a boy who was murdered seventeen years ago)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> -The Bureau is a branch of South Korea’s federal law enforcement agency...which deal exclusively with the supernatural.  
> -The Bureau uses good ghosts to help in their investigations wherever possible. The only problem is, such ghosts are hard to find. For an agent and a ghost to be paired up to work together, there must be a sufficiently strong soul-connection between them. These types of agents usually have a natural gift or predisposition for communicating with ghosts.
> 
> -A _roamer_ is a type of ghost that is not bound to one location (e.g., site of death), and instead wanders. A roaming ghost with a malevolent will is considered very dangerous because it will actively seek out vulnerable people or unstable situations where it can do most harm.

The wipers squeak across the window, sweeping through the curtain of rain on the glass.

“Seun seng nim is so stingy with his praise,” Chanyeol mutters, flopping his head to one side against the car seat headrest. 

“You can look forward to reading my comments at the end of your probation,” Seok says.

“Will it say that I am your favourite student?” Chanyeol says.

“Most troublesome student.”

“Ah.” Chanyeol rolls his head the other way to look out the passenger window smeary with condensation.

A staticy crackle from the radio between them, then a woman’s voice: _“I-23.”_

Seok unhooks the mic and brings it to his mouth. “I-23, go.”

_“We’re registering a tripped wire at Taepyeong. Unknown signature. Can you respond?”_

Seok acknowledges and hooks the mic, checks in the rearview, turning the steering wheel one-handed, swings the car around in one smooth tight motion, cutting across the lanes, Chanyeol’s body presses to the passenger door with the motion of it, and Chanyeol is sitting up straight in his seat now.

“Unknown signature? That means a roamer?” He looks excitedly from Seok’s face to the radio and back again.

The corner of Seok’s mouth is crooked in a slight smile, the pulse of a passing streetlight briefly illuminates his face. 

“Probably a false alarm, kid. The wires around here are old. A stray dog can trip them off sometimes.”

“So I can come with you?” Chanyeol says.

“What do you think.”

“But if it’s just a stray dog...”

“Stray dogs bite,” Seok says.

~~~

Seok parks up and the rain patters down on the roof of the car.

“Stay put.”

The car door thumps shut behind him and then there’s just quiet and the rain.

Chanyeol sighs and drops his head back.

There’s a steep embankment at the roadside with houses along the top. The lights from the windows show dimly in the darkness, distorted like running blots of paint.

With the car wipers frozen in place, the windscreen is all awash. Headlights of an approaching car flare through the running water and Chanyeol squints his eyes and in that moment he sees–

The car passes by and it’s dark again, but now that Chanyeol is looking, he can see there's somebody out there. Somebody standing in the middle of the road.

He sits up slowly, leaning forward. 

Yes. There’s definitely a figure standing there in the rain, not too far from the car.

This person is standing motionless. Like a zombie.

Chanyeol feels a weird thrill and he smirks to himself and scratches at his neck.

_“Stay put.”_

Seok won’t find it so funny if he comes back and Chanyeol’s soaking wet and it’s obvious he’s disobeyed his orders and gone out into the rain.

But that person standing in the road like that. What are they doing there in the middle of the night exactly?

Chanyeol sits there debating.

He pops the handle on the door and hauls himself out into the spattering rain.

He walks towards the zombie. The zombie is kind of short – possibly a kid.

"Hey!" he calls.

There’s no reaction.

He keeps going towards them. Maybe the kid can’t hear him over the rain.

"Hey!" Chanyeol tries again. "Hello?" He puts a hand up to his mouth, pantomiming. "Hey!"

At last the guy turns. Slowly. They’re close to each other now, in the middle of the road, and Chanyeol gets a look at the guy’s face. They’re probably about the same age, the guy’s just small.

"Tell me, are you deaf or something?" Chanyeol says, stopping in front of him. 

Chanyeol checks behind to see if there’s a car coming before turning back to the guy. 

“Why are you standing out here? You’re going to get hit by a car.”

The kid is completely drenched. His hair is plastered flat to his forehead, dark eyes peer out from under the sodden hair, he’s staring fixedly at Chanyeol.

Chanyeol laughs a little, incredulous. Is this guy high on something?

"Do you live here?" Chanyeol nods up at the row of houses. "Hey? Do you live here?" 

He waits a couple seconds, then he’s out of patience. He’s getting drenched.

He clicks his fingers in front of the kid’s face.

“Hello, Mister zombie, can you hear me?”

He reaches for the guy’s shoulder, saying easily, "Come on, let's just get out of the road–" 

The guy jerks back before Chanyeol can touch him.

A shout comes from behind. Chanyeol glances over his shoulder to see Seok jogging towards him through the rain.

“What are you doing?”

“This guy’s just standing in the middle of the road like an idiot.” Chanyeol gestures to the kid.

Seok comes to a halt next to Chanyeol, a bit out of breath.

“What?”

“He won’t get out of the–” Chanyeol glances at the kid again, but there’s no one standing there.

It’s like standing in an elevator that’s just lurched down a couple of feet – a weird swooping feeling in his guts. 

Impossible. Impossible, his body tells him. People don’t do that, flicker out of existence, between one second and the next. 

He turns sharply in place, looking down the road, searching in all directions for any sign of movement, but asides from the rain and the streaming glittering rivers of water rushing along the gutters, there is total stillness. 

“No.” Chanyeol turns again in another full circle and then Seok’s taking hold of him by the elbow. 

“I told you to wait in the car.”

“You saw him, right?” Chanyeol pulls free of Seok’s grip. “Was that a test?”

“What are you talking about?”

“That kid just now – you seriously didn't see him standing behind me?”

Seok’s watching him with a strange look.

“Was this a test?” Chanyeol says again. “Are you messing with me? I swear to god, there was some guy, he was my age, he was standing right there. I spoke to him. He was _right there_. He just disappeared.”

“Let's go back to the car.”

They climb in with their clothes dripping, pull the doors closed, the overhead light blinks off.

“They said there was a roamer,” Chanyeol says, talking fast, his mind working rapidly. “It tripped a wire–”

“Don’t get overexcited. Tell me exactly what happened.”

Chanyeol tells him.

“You spoke to him. Did he respond to you?”

“He didn’t say anything.”

“But he reacted to your presence?”

“He looked at me. And he went like this–” Chanyeol lifts both his hands fast and jerks back in his seat “–when I put my hand out.”

They sit for a moment longer, then Seok turns the key in the ignition. “Put your seatbelt on.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“I do believe you.” Seok looks over at him. “It’s late. Time you were home. Don’t think about this too much tonight.”

“Sure,” Chanyeol says dryly.

~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Seun seng nim_ = teacher (I may be using this incorrectly, I wasn’t sure what else Chanyeol would call Seok, who is his mentor / superior)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've written this that Chanyeol has two sisters - one older, one younger.
> 
> Sorry I write slowly, I'll try and update this as I get bits written.

_“I think I love you, so what am I so afraid of, I’m afraid that I’m not sure of–”_

“Nnnnhhh...” Chanyeol turns over in bed, mashing his face into the pillow. “Eun-ju, be quiet.”

_“–what life is made of, though it worries me to say that I’ve never felt this way!”_

The chipmunk voice singing the obnoxious song falls blessedly quiet and Chanyeol sighs thickly into his pillow. The fog of sleep takes a few more seconds to lift sufficiently for his brain to tell him that something’s weird.

He pushes himself slowly up onto his elbows and rubs his face, turns and sits up in bed and blinks at his sunlit bedroom.

The door is still closed, just like he left it last night.

The curtain is moving slightly in the breeze through the window. From downstairs comes the muffled noise of the kitchen radio along with the occasional clink of crockery.

He reaches for his phone on the bedside table, sees that the alarm still has four minutes until it goes off.

He sweeps another glance around the bedroom.

This time he notices the two things.

One: his set text on summoning practice is lying open in the middle of the floor.

Two: his little sister’s toy is sitting on his desk. It’s the hamster that sings and wiggles when you press its foot. His sister is obsessed with it, to the point where now every time that annoying chipmunk-voice starts up singing its song Chanyeol feels like flushing the thing down the toilet. 

He gets out of bed and goes to the desk and picks up the toy. It was this thing’s singing that woke him up.

He bends and picks up the summoning textbook and puts it up on the highest shelf above the desk, then he heads out to take his shower.

After, on his way downstairs, he stops in at Eun-ju’s bedroom and drops the hamster toy on her bed.

“Did mom already leave with Eun-ju?” he says as he comes in the kitchen and dumps his backpack on the table.

“Ages ago.” Min-sun’s on her way to the sink with a dish and a cup and her arm bumps Chanyeol’s as he’s on his way to the fridge. “Watch it! If I get coffee on this shirt you’re dead.” 

She pauses by the sink to swallow the last of her coffee, then she sets her dish and the cup in the sink. 

“I’m going to be working late tonight – can you wash this up with your stuff? Or else mom’s just going to do it when she gets home–”

“So you should do it yourself,” Chanyeol gripes, settling back against the counter with a can of fruit drink.

“Can you just help me out? I pick up after you all the time. Look, mom left you money on the shelf. I’ve got to get going.”

“Hey.” Chanyeol watches as Min-sun pulls on her blazer and maneuvers her bulky work folder into her bag. “Do you know if Eun-ju was playing in my room yesterday? She left her toy in there.”

“Then she must have been.” Min-sun pauses in the kitchen doorway and looks around distractedly, feeling her pockets.

Chanyeol picks up her keys where they’re hidden behind the basket on the counter and tosses them to her.

“Aren’t you going to ask me how last night went?”

“How did last night go,” Min-sun parrots back, monotone.

“I saw a ghost,” Chanyeol says casually.

Min-sun’s movements falter, she glances at him and Chanyeol’s expression must be completely unimpressive because she just gives him a look and says, “Right. Hey, if you’re coming back here with your friends to study tonight, don’t make a mess.” 

She finishes putting her shoes on. 

“I’m going now!”

“Bye.”

The front door slams and Chanyeol stays leaning against the counter, drinking his peach drink.

~~~


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm skipping ahead a little missing a chunk out for now. There's a missing span of time between last chapter and this one.

He drops down into his desk chair.

“This is really a pain actually,” he mutters, swiveling the chair from side to side.

With heavy movements, he reaches down and unlocks the drawer, takes out the hamster toy, sets it on the desk.

He looks at the toy. Shakes his head.

Just to be sure, he gets up and grabs his summoning textbook and dumps it open in the middle of the floor.

“There.”

He unfolds the paper Seok gave him and paces over to the window, scanning the spell again. It’s long. It’s complicated Old Language. More dense than anything they’re given to do at school.

 _“Don’t try and rush it,”_ Seok had told him. _“It will take time and practice to learn this spell.”_

Chanyeol sighs.

He starts on the first line, reading silently in his head. He pauses as he hits _[ title of entity ]_.

“Title of entity,” he mutters. He pulls out the other scrap of paper from his pocket, smoothes it out. “Do Kyungsoo. Do...Kyungsoo.” 

He tries silently to make it through the first line again.

“Ah.” He gives up and falls onto his bed, scrubs his hand through his hair. “I don’t even know if I want to be a Bureau man. Why this all of a sudden?” He’s talking to the room, glaring up at the ceiling.

“My grades are shit. I’m near the bottom of the class. Go and talk to Chen.” 

He wriggles up the bed and collapses back, throwing his head back hard into the pillow.

He lies still for a while. The cool breeze drifts in through the open window. The curtain lifts and falls.

He holds the paper up in front of his face and blows his breath out irritably. Then falteringly, he sounds out the first part of the sentence aloud. He gets to _“Do Kyungsoo”_ and it’s like something snaps.

All at once words are spilling out of his mouth without his control, rushing out like water through a busted dam, his eyes flash across the words on the page, line by line, very fast, his brain taking it in instantaneously and his mouth speaking the words of the Old Language in a rush, it’s pouring out of him like he’s being sick, like his body’s bringing it up all in one go, as fast as it can, with no option to stop.

He hits the last word and it’s over, he can move again, he can think again – he rolls onto his side as if he’s going to be sick, he’s not sure, he’s panting and sweating – he almost rolls off the bed.

“God.” He drops the paper away from him, onto the floor, his hands shaky, he struggles clumsily to sit up. “What the fuck...”

“It worked.”

Chanyeol lets out a loud yell. There’s someone standing at the foot of his bed.

“Oh what the _fuck!_ ” He scrambles sideways into the nightstand, crashing it to the floor, the lamp goes over onto its side, the shade bent and throwing a crazy angle of light across the room. 

He’s stumbling for the door – there’s his baseball bat propped against the desk, he grabs for it, fumbles and nearly knocks it over, catches it up with both hands and swings round to face the thing he’s summoned.

The ghost is still standing there at the foot of the bed.

“You–” Chanyeol chokes out.

“Chanyeollie?” his mother’s voice calls from out in the hall.

Chanyeol stands frozen for a beat. Jerkily, he shifts to get his back up against the door, he doesn’t want her coming in here. He keeps his baseball bat pointed at the ghost.

“It’s okay,” he shouts hoarsely. “I just knocked something over!”

“Go to bed.” 

“Okay!”

He hears her footsteps moving off.

What now.

He stands panting quietly, his eyes fixed on the apparition.

The curtain billows behind Do Kyungsoo. It doesn’t move through him. It gusts against Do’s back and clings to his shoulders before it settles again, and Do is just standing there staring at Chanyeol. At length, Do breaks the silence.

“I’m sorry to scare you. I’m not going to hurt you.”

And then he bows, a deep bow. 

“Thank you for summoning me.”

He straightens up and they’re back to staring at each other.

“I–” Chanyeol swallows because his voice is all rough. He needs to get a grip. “I’m not scared.” He becomes aware he’s still pointing the baseball bat and he drops his arm quickly, with studied casualness, straightening from his freak-out defensive stance to his full height. He strides forward, into the middle of the room, and stops there, facing Do.

For a ghost...really, for a ghost, Do looks like a regular person. And a shrimp at that. Chanyeol looks him up and down. Just a shrimpy guy...with Adidas sneakers.

“Adidas,” Chanyeol finds himself saying stupidly, pointing to the guy’s shoes with his bat.

Do Kyungsoo looks down. Now they’re both looking at his shoes.

“Yes.” Do lifts his head again and there’s another awkward weird span of seconds where they just regard each other.

“You’re Do Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol says, and his voice sounds normal now. He thinks he’s doing a good job seeming normal right now. 

“Yes.” 

This guy with the dark steady gaze and the serious face, just like the photo, just like the night in the rain.

Chanyeol points his thumb to his chest. “Park Chanyeol.”

Do inclines his head again formally. Chanyeol does the same. _We’re being normal, this is normal._

“You’re dead,” Chanyeol finds himself saying next, kind of loudly. And then, “How did you die?”

Do’s gaze fixes on a point around Chanyeol’s right shoulder.

“That’s rude to ask.”

He’s very soft-spoken, Chanyeol thinks distantly.

“What?” Chanyeol says loudly.

“It’s rude to ask,” Do says.

“Ah, it’s rude.” Chanyeol rests his bat against his leg and gestures to the room at large (the wreckage of the nightstand out the corner of his eye is a little too embarrassing to call direct attention to just then). “You know it’s rude to create chaos and mess with people’s stuff and play weird games–”

“I wasn’t playing games–”

“–and force someone to read a spell when they were just practicing and weren’t ready, and appear in the rain like a zombie.”

“I thought you’re a Bureau man,” Do says. Somehow, even saying it the way he does, without much intonation in the words, there’s a suggestion he still gets across with his manner that pisses Chanyeol off.

“Yeah, I am,” Chanyeol says, squaring up his shoulders. He doesn’t bother correcting Do on the fact he’s just in the trainee programme for his module in school. “Does that give you a right to do whatever you want and mess with me?”

“I needed to contact you.”

“Why?”

“Because of the girl,” Do says slowly, like Chanyeol is maybe an idiot.

“Who? My sister?” Chanyeol takes another step forward, the bat gripped tight in his hand. “You stay away from her, do you understand? What do you think you’re doing going in her room, moving her toys around?”

“Not your sister,” Do says. He doesn’t back up at all in response to Chanyeol coming closer. 

Standing close to a ghost, Chanyeol is a little disappointed to find that the air isn’t cold. There’s no ghostly light, no weird glow or fuzzy edges to Do. He just looks like any other kid Chanyeol might see at school.

“The murdered girl,” Do says.

“What murdered girl?”

“The occult ritual murders.” Do’s brows draw together in a frown. “Do you not know about that?” 

“Why would I?” 

There’s a pause. The curtain buffets Do again, gusting round his back and his shoulders. He’s corporeal like that? Why?

Do looks aside, over at Chanyeol’s desk. He puts his arm out awkwardly, pushing the curtain away. He steps slowly away from the window and goes over to the desk.

“Hey.” Chanyeol turns in place, tracking his movement. “You can’t just say ‘occult murder’ and leave it at that.”

“Are you a trainee?” Do murmurs. He’s looking at the shelf of books above the desk.

“Don’t ask questions about me,” Chanyeol says. “This is about you. Hey.”


	4. Chapter 4

“We need to find the killer.”

“What?” Chanyeol can’t suppress a surprised huff of laughter. “What do you mean ‘we’?”

Do slants a look at him, completely unsmiling. “We need to make a partnership bond. We should head to the local Bureau station as soon as possible.”

“Huh?” Chanyeol’s laughing again, he can’t help it. “No. No way. Are you the crazy type of ghost?”

Do is silent, and going by the look on his face, this reaction is not what he was expecting. It just makes it all the more funny to Chanyeol right then. Maybe it’s some slight hysteria, the surreal-ness of the whole situation.

“Do you know how many classes I’m failing?” Chanyeol holds up three fingers. “Three. I’m a screw up. I might not even graduate. Yeah.” He’s gratified by the shift in Do’s expression. “You don’t want me for your partner. So now you know that, go haunt someone else and leave me alone.”

“No...” Do rests his hand on the back of Chanyeol’s desk chair and keeps it there stiffly, looking around like he’s thinking of the best way to explain this. Chanyeol waits.

“We...have a connection.” Do puts his hand to his chest vaguely. “You’re my link to this realm.”

“Your link?” Chanyeol raises his eyebrows and nods a little, pretending to be really impressed. He points at Do with the bat. “Get a new link.”

“People spend their careers trying to find a ghost to partner with,” Do says.

“You won’t have trouble finding a replacement then.”

“It doesn’t work like that.” Do is watching Chanyeol with an intensity that should be unsettling, but Chanyeol finds he’s still smiling.

“If I told you this murdered girl wasn’t the only one,” Do says. “That there are others. Would you care about finding her killer?”

“Who do you think I am?” Chanyeol holds his arms open at his sides. “I’m just some guy. I’m supposed to want to partner up with you and go chasing some killer? These partnerships are supposed to be long-term, right?”

“Not necessarily,” Do says, but he looks away.

Chanyeol knows he’s bullshitting. “Sure.”

“There’s someone else I can search for, but in the meantime I need to stay with you.”

“Someone else?” Chanyeol prompts, playing along. “Who?”

“A detective,” Do says. Sounds like more bullshit. “If it’s only temporary, will you partner with me?”

Chanyeol props the bat against the desk. He can feel Do watching him and it makes the back of his neck prickle.

“So you have no sense of duty at all,” Do observes.

Chanyeol doesn’t pay that much attention. “Ghosts have special abilities, right?” 

He’s gone over to the pin board that’s mounted up on the wall. 

“Like you can tell if someone is alive or dead? I’ll make you a deal. I need an answer to that kind of question. If you do that for me, I’ll help you.” He looks back at Do. “Temporarily, that is. Just until you find this other guy.”

“Fine,” Do says immediately. “What do you want to know.”

“Seriously?” Chanyeol can’t keep his eyes from going wide, then he’s whipping round, fumbling with the photo that’s tucked into the lower corner of the pin board. He brings it to Do and holds it up right in front of his face. “I need to know if– Can you tell me where this guy is?”

Do leans back a little. Chanyeol was holding the photo too close to his face. 

“No.”

“What? Bullshit.” Chanyeol drops his arm down. “You can find people – you found me, didn’t you?”

“That’s different.”

Chanyeol shows him the photo again. “Is he alive? Just tell me that.”

“Who is he?”

“What’s it to you?” Chanyeol barks.

The photo is of Chanyeol and Baekhyun. That day at the game. They’ve got their arms slung round each other’s shoulders, both of them grinning like idiots at the camera.

And now that Do’s actually studying the picture, it makes Chanyeol almost want to hide it away, which is stupid considering he’s the one making Do look at it in the first place. 

“He’s my best friend,” Chanyeol says finally.

“I need an object you associate with him,” Do says. “Something that strongly reminds you of him.”

“Really? Okay – just let me – uh–” Chanyeol casts around for a moment. He goes to the closet, takes down the baseball mitt from the top shelf. “This is his.” He holds it out for Do to take, but Do doesn’t put his hand out and Chanyeol remembers he’s a ghost, he probably can’t touch stuff. Chanyeol stays holding the mitt out to him though because Do’s looking at it like he’s seeing into another dimension... Maybe he is.

“I can find something else,” Chanyeol offers.

“This is fine.” Do raises his hand and kind of holds it above the mitt like a psychic with a crystal ball. 

“What are you going to do?”

Do has closed his eyes. 

“Are you doing it right now?”

“Be quiet,” Do says.

Several seconds pass. Chanyeol looks from Do’s face to the mitt to Do’s face again.

Do opens his eyes.

“He’s alive.”

“What?” Chanyeol grips the mitt tightly. “Seriously? Are you serious? Where is he?”

“Seoul.”

“Where in Seoul?”

“I don’t know. It was hard to see.”

“But is he– He’s okay?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Do says. Then after a pause, “He’s healthy.”

“Of course he is.” Chanyeol can’t keep still. He goes over to the window, pulling the mitt on automatically, patting his fist into it a couple of times, turning from the window pulling the mitt off and tossing it aside onto the bed. He goes back to the desk and picks up his phone, shoving it into his pocket. “Come on, then.”

“We’re going to the station?” Do says.

“Actually, you know, I changed my mind about that,” Chanyeol deadpans. The look Do gives him makes his blood run cold. “That was a joke!” He heads for the door, expecting Do to follow him. “I knew Baekhyunah got out of this shit hole.” He pulls the door open and turns, but Do hasn’t moved from over by the desk. “What are you waiting for, let’s go.”

“You’re really going to help me?”

“I promised, didn’t I?”

“You’ll enter into a partnership with me?”

“Temporarily. That was the deal.” Chanyeol gestures impatiently. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”


End file.
